Free Republic

On March 30, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit published an opinion in the case of Knibbs v Momphard. The Court found for the Estate of Knibbs, which is suing Deputy Momphard of the Macon County Sheriff’s Department. It was a split opinion, for the Knibbs Estate. Important precedents involving firearms and the Second Amendment are solidified by this opinion, which cites several previous cases. The Constitutional Amendment primarily cited is the Fourth Amendment. However, the citation to the Fourth relies on the Second Amendment, which includes the possession of a firearm in the home for self-defense.This author...

On 19 August 2020, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Federal District court. The three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit found the Attorney General of New Jersey is under Texas jurisdiction for this case. The case is Defense Distributed v. Grewal. The finding allows a lawsuit filed against the New Jersey AG for violation of Defense Distributed First Amendment rights to publish computer code for 3D printed guns, to go forward.Presumably, the discovery of Grewal's records on any discussion relevant to stop Defense Distributed from publishing will be allowed to continue. AG Grewal can ask for an en...

At a news conference in Austin, Texas, Paloma Heindorff has announced that she has taken the position of Director now that Cody Wilson has resigned the post amid his legal troubles over alleged sex with a 16-year-old prostitute.  The press conference has become global news. Defense Distributed has always been adept at beating the establishment media. They posted the entire new conference online at Youtube the same day. It is worth watching. The video is reasonably short, at 19:37 minutes Youtube has a history of taking down Defense Distributed videos. You can click on the Youtube link to watch...

Cody Wilson, the public voice and face of Defense Distributed, is in serious legal trouble.Cody Wilson has a warrant for his arrest, signed by a judge in Texas. Wilson is said to be in Taiwan, and may stay there depending on the outcome. The warrant is based on credible evidence that Cody Wilson paid for sex with a 16-year-old woman. It is unknown if Wilson has been legally served. It seems unlikely. Cody Wilson has been a thorn in the side of those who want a disarmed population for the last six years.  His exploits with 3D printed guns...

Those handy digital blueprints that enable anyone to 3D print gun parts or even a weapon from scratch could be under threat thanks to a new proposal from the State Department. A notice posted on June 3rd in a recent Federal Register show that some changes are being made to the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations. Hidden within the proposal, which restricts what gear, technology, and info can and cannot be exported out of the US, is a ban on posting schematics for 3D printed gun parts online. The ruling comes just a month after Cody Wilson and, his...

We have a lot of ground to cover, Ghost Gunners. Since our last update we have shipped our initial run of 200 machines, and are now shipping about 10 a day to complete those 300 orders originally scheduled for fulfillment in Q1 of this year. We've broken the shipping delays down from six months to three, and by the end of the summer we'll have six week lead times for current wait list orders. All credit for this is due to the hard work of the boys here at the shop. We overcame significant supplier failures early in the year...

Cody Wilson had a vision to forward the digital revolution by creating the nation’s first firearm on a 3-D printer, and, taking a page from WikiLeaks, share the blueprints with the world via the Internet in what he called the “Wiki Weapons project.” Now he is suing the federal government in hopes of keeping his dream on target - and staying out of prison. Wilson was so taken with the idea, he dropped out of law school and designed "The Liberator," the nation’s first pistol built exclusively on a 3-D printer, consisting of 12 separate parts made from plastic and...

Having lunch with the 14th Most Dangerous Person in the World is less scary than you might think. Unless you happen to have a morbid fear of hipster beards, Cody Wilson, a good-looking 26-year-old who blends with the crowd in the east London cafe where I meet him, doesn't immediately strike fear into the heart. He chats away with the waitress, discussing the possibilities before ordering east London's hippest sandwich – the pulled pork burger – and has an easygoing, amiable manner. He is, frankly, about as threatening as a barista. A barista who has happened on a spectacular method...

DOJ began a PR push last week to find legislative traction for a set of proposed bills that would criminalize the individual production of rifle receivers and magazines with 3D printers. Sections 4 and 5 of the proposed House bill directly criminalize 3D printed receivers and magazines, and mandate an arbitrary amount of metal be part of their fabrication. Beyond suffering from fatal Due Process and GCA problems, the bill’s prohibitions are not extended to manufacturers because (hint) there isn’t actually a security issue at stake. The bad faith and fraud required to hide this from the current public...

"Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns," warns the bulletin compiled by the Joint Regional Intelligence Center. The bulletin refers specifically to Defense Distributed, a nonprofit company started by a University of Texas law student, which has successfully made and fired a 3D gun whose only metal parts are the bullets and a small firing pin. Some 100,000 plans for a gun called "The Liberator" were downloaded in just...

This video was found at Defense Distributed. It shows the test firing of the Lulz Liberator, a $25 3D printed pistol. It is only 30 seconds long, so it has been edited to only show the firing. The video loads quickly. Defense Distributed labels it as "For Australia". Link to Gun Watch and Video

DD ITAR Update 1 A few have criticized how quickly I responded to the DDTC and began participating in their regulatory process. It is said I should have stood and fought if I believed in keeping the files free, instead of complying. This compliance has been viewed as some kind of ultimate one, as if I don’t intend to do anything else. “No takedowns, ever.” Was a motto I had built into my vision of DEFCAD.com, not DEFCAD.org, and it referred to a strategy for dealing with intellectual property claims and social pressure- this is NOT the strategy DD/DEFCAD.org can...

The revolutionary concept of 3-D printed firearms has been building momentum for months now. Online observers, innovators, investors and the generally curious celebrated as the first completely 3-D printed handgun became a reality. Since the blueprint for “The Liberator” hit the web, the file was downloaded thousands of times in just a few days. Today, the government shut it down. Cody Wilson, the 3-D gunsmith, law student, and founder of the non-profit innovation outlet, Defense Distributed, broke the bad news in a tweet to his followers.

The DEFCAD site shows the following:DEFCAD files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information. Link to DEFCAD site here We do not know if this is real or not. There was a similar spoof done on April 1st. Link to April 1st spoof story "Breaking: Defense Distributed website seized, Cody Wilson arrested on conspiracy charges!" We will learn more in the next few hours. This may be real. ©2013 by Dean Weingarten Permission to share granted as long...

St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner has been avidly following the "Wiki Weapon" project, by Defense Distributed, to design a "printed" gun, that could be entirely made on a consumer grade 3-D printer. Even this correspondent, though, did not really believe that that goal was realistic in any near term time frame. Printable "high capacity" magazines and printable lower receivers for AR-15 "assault weapons," still requiring commercially manufactured metal parts to function as a complete firearm, seemed ambitious enough. The forcible citizen disarmament lobby certainly seems to have thought so.As it turns out, though, I should have had more faith...

In this YouTube video, more details are revealed about the first pistol to be completely produced by a 3D printer. There is one metal part, but it is made from a common nail, and is so ubiquitous that it does not offer any impediment to the creation of these pistols. Interesting details in this video include how the pistol is loaded. As I thought previously, the .380 ACP, 9x17, 9mm Kurtz, or 9mm Corto, all different designations for the same cartridge, is pushed into the chamber of the barrel by hand, then the barrel is simply snapped into place in...

A Texas company is set to release blueprints for making a plastic gun with a 3-D printer — a development Sen. Chuck Schumer called “stomach-churning” Sunday. Defense Distributed, a collective of gun access advocates headed by self-described “free-market anarchist” Cody Wilson, has announced it made such an untraceable gun with the new plastic-making technology. The nonprofit Texas group intends to post blueprints for “The Liberator” (pictured) online this week. The Liberator may look like a toy, but “this gun can fire regular bullets,” Schumer said, calling for legislation outlawing the technology’s weapons potential. “Security checkpoints, background checks and gun regulations...

Defense Distributed has released a video of the successful test firing by hand of their first complete 3D printed pistol, the "Liberator". The Liberator has only one metal part, the firing pin, made from a common nail. In the video, Cody Wilson is shown firing the pistol by hand, to dramatically illustrate his faith in the design. The Liberator is a single shot pistol in .380 (9X17) caliber. While firearms have been made in home workshops ever since they have been in existence, the ability to download computer files and have a computer controlled machine print all the parts to...

In February, the techie gun-rights group Defense Distributed unveiled a 3D-printed lower receiver for an AR-15 rifle that withstood hundreds of rounds of fire. A YouTube video of the component in action was accompanied by the terse statement, “Does not fail from firing stresses. 600+ rounds.” This impressive development came just months after the group earned some ribbing for its first attempt at a homebrewed plastic receiver (the core of the AR-15 and the component that is technically regulated by law), which disintegrated after six shots. But success followed failure, as Defense Distributed unveiled a high-capacity rifle magazine that could...

Prompted by the horrific Sandy Hook shooting last December, lawmakers across the country are locked in debate over the future of gun control in America. While they fight in Washington over background checks, there has been a technological revolution brewing. In the face of increased gun control, several groups have taken the initiative to manufacture guns via 3D printers. A homemade gun sounds revolutionary to most, but it’s perfectly legal so long as it meets federal and state restrictions on gun ownership. That said, $30 and a simple YouTube tutorial can land you a homemade ‘shotgun.’ For the more aesthetically...